NORTH POLE, Arctic Circle – Following the unauthorized leak by a disgruntled elf of a highly confidential memo outlining potential restructuring scenarios, Santa’s Workshop, Inc., the distressed Lapland incorporated trading entity, announced earlier today that it had managed to stave off a default on its Christmas Morning Backed Securities (CMBS) through a combination of a conservative use of existing cash and recapitalization from white knight rescue lenders. Having made its dwindling cash pile last for eight days and eight nights during the height of its manufacturing season, Santa’s Workshop then announced that a consortium of rescue lenders led by the Maccabees and Tooth Fairy Holdings (Cayman) Ltd. had recapitalized Santa’s Workshop, allowing it to redeem its outstanding CMBS upon payment of outstanding principal and accrued interest, and a 1% redemption premium payable in chocolate coins. A spokesman for Santa’s Workshop announced that Christmas had been saved, and that all presents were expected to be delivered to children worldwide on time. Markets reacted positively to the news, with the S&P rising 2.5%, while the FTSE rose 1.4%. Market participants noted that this was yet another default that has been staved off by liquidity in the market and the easy availability of credit as a result of quantitative easing. A poll of lenders carried out by the Holiday News Network found that 72% of those polled thought that this was indeed a holiday miracle, while 23% thought that Santa’s Workshop was simply too big to fail and would have received a bailout no matter what. 5% of those polled were too busy writing letters to Santa to respond. [Click here to read more]

[Not so Breaking Blog News] [Bankruptcy Blog]

NEW YORK, New York – The editorial board of Weil’s Bankruptcy Blog – Debbie Dandeneau, Adam Strochak and Elisa Lemmer – issued a joint statement today expressing special thanks to readers of the blog, noting that: “We hope that you’ve enjoyed following the Bankruptcy Blog in 2012, and have a happy and healthy holiday season!” A spokesman for the Bankruptcy Blog team, Lori Seavey, indicated that the Bankruptcy Blog team would be taking a short break over the holidays and will be back in early January with more cutting edge analysis and commentary from the restructuring world.